Steph Lyons PhD

Freelance Health and Social Care Consultant

Steph is a freelance consultant working within the health and social care sector and enjoys working with organisations that place citizens at the heart of what they do and are motivated to improve.

Having worked within local authority commissioning and the provider sector, Steph is able to consider opportunities and challenges from a range of perspectives and work with individuals and organisations from diverse backgrounds to develop solutions. Steph has worked on projects that have been recognised nationally for collaboration and won awards for working across health and social care.

An area of focus for Steph has been on implementing and managing change. Whilst working within community-based services this included embedding asset-based approaches such as asset-based support planning and developing peer support groups for people experiencing poor mental health. Change also included creating mechanisms by which to evidence the economic and social impacts of investing in preventative approaches.

On a larger scale and motivated by her interest in local democracy, Steph was a Programme Manager on the Dorset Local Government Reorganisation programme. This involved working within a political environment, engaging with citizens, supporting councils through their decision-making processes and working with central government departments. The programme resulted in Dorset transforming from a two-tier system consisting of nine local authorities to two unitaries.

Steph also has a background in research and when working as a freelance research assistant provided evaluations for organisations such as the Food Standards Agency and the University of Hull. These are skills that she has applied in local authority and CCG settings to provide diagnostics that inform future service design and aid decision making.

Currently, Steph is working with an organisation that is focused on promoting and embedding self-directed support around the country and working with organisations to develop the tools and infrastructure to make this a reality.

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